


Zero

by ChangingbacktoBellamort500



Series: Garnet [26]
Category: The Boys (TV 2019)
Genre: Childhood, Drabble, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2021-01-13 15:34:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21158519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChangingbacktoBellamort500/pseuds/ChangingbacktoBellamort500
Summary: There was zero warmth in her smile.





	Zero

**Ten**

In the bathtub are ten faded yellow ducks with wonky eyes. Madelyn would like to watch them burn, burn the way her cheek does after her mom's slap.

**Nine**

Madelyn has a jar with nine milk teeth in hidden underneath her bed. She doesn't know why she keeps them.

She doesn't know why she does any of the things. Why had she pushed her mom's buttons all day?

**Eight**

Madelyn owns eight pairs of socks. They were once pristine white but now a faded grey. Dull and lifeless like everything else in this house.

  
**Seven**

It's been seven seconds since her mom her hit. Her mom has a shocked look on her face like she couldn't believe she did. Almost if she knows whatever fragile bond they have snapped completely.

  
**Six**

Teddy has been crying for six minutes; screaming his head off, his face bright red from crying. He lies on a dirty mat on the floor. Madelyn goes over and picks him, tries to settle him down.

**Five**

Her dad left the house five hours ago to see his latest whore. Was it cruel point out that's where he was to her mom? Maybe, but she was sick, and tired of her moping, and wanted to see a bit of fire in her.

**Four**

Madelyn was four years old when she first found him cheating on her mom. It was with the barely legal babysitter on the sofa. The girl got pregnant, that's who her brother Jack mom is.

He doesn't know that he has a different mom.

**Three**

The combination to unlock where dad keeps his guns is three-nine-four-two.

Madelyn wonders what it would be like to grab one and shoot her family dead. In many ways, it would be a merciful act.

**Two**

It'd just be her and Teddy, the two of them against the world. But the thought of him growing up one day to hate for doing it stops her.

**One**

One day she'll make them all suffer from the shadows. They'll never know it was her doing it. But she will know and relish in it.

**Zero**

Madelyn smiles at her mom. There is zero warmth or happiness in the smile. On an adult the smile would be disturbing, on a child it's sinister.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the last in the garnet series and my 95th story for the boys.


End file.
